TransChristians.org

Objection: Altering Your Appearance

Perhaps the silliest objection I have heard is that we are immoral for changing our appearance or that our desire to change our appearance reflects something negative about us. Personally, I was told the only reason I would change my appearance is out of shame of my body.

I concede that a lot of trans people are ashamed of their body and that is a sad fact indeed. I am blessed that my body dysphoria is relatively minor compared with those transpeople who feel compelled to change it. However, we must deal with shame which we can do either externally or internally. Ideally, we would all do this internally because such a process not only builds character and practices virtue, it saves us the hassle and cost of external changes and prevents our adversaries from unjustly criticizing us. Those who feel unable to come to grips with their natural body will do so externally. We could debate the merit and possibility of internal versus external changes, but that's beside the point. The point is that we do something.